Ghost Wolf (Avalon: Web of Magic #9)

by Rachel Roberts

“Woohoo!”

  Drake’s magic wrapped around her like sunlight as she surged forward. Through the swirling light, she could see a small rounded portal hanging above the Rocking Stone.

  Weight centered, Dreamer ready, she went for it.

  With a dazzling burst of golden magic, she broke through, soaring high over the glade. Her friends gaped as she flew over their heads.

  Staying compact, she leaned back and stomped the landing.

  She heard her friends screaming and turned to see why. A wave of shadow creatures had slipped through, riding the wake of her magic.

  Tumbling to the ground, Adriane called out, “Drake, toast them!”

  The dragon opened his mouth and roared ferociously—but only a harmless puff of pistachio breath came out.

  “What happened to your fire?” Zach asked, firing ruby red bolts of magic to ward off the flying beasts.

  “Too much ice cream!” Drake groaned, looking at Ozzie.

  “What? It was all going to melt.” The ferret leaped to the side as dozens of ghostly bats descended on the glade.

  Moonshadow howled, a piercing cry that disintegrated several creatures instantly; others slammed into the Rocking Stone itself.

  “Help the mistwolves!” Adriane cried.

  The mages stood together and fired. Wolf, dragon, unicorn, ferret, and healing magic entwined into a lariat of power. Amplified through the mage’s jewels, the howl of the wolves hit the ghost bats like dynamite. Wings dissolved into ash as their bodies exploded and fell sizzling into the lake.

  “RoooooR!” Tweek wriggled in Dreamer’s jaws.

  “Quite an entrance,” Kara said, unicorn jewel blazing diamond bright.

  “What’s happened to Tweek?” Emily ran forward, taking the twitching, screaming E.F. from the mistwolf’s mouth.

  “He’s under the spell of the Spider Witch,” Adriane said to the healer.

  “Are you all right?” Zach asked Adriane.

  “I’m fine, thanks to you guys,” Adriane told them.

  “I found you,” Drake said, wrapping his giant wings around Adriane.

  “Thank you.” Adriane hugged his scaly chest, then turned to her friends. “I didn’t find Storm.”

  “What about the power crystal?” Kara asked.

  “Wild magic swept me away before I could look for it.”

  “Take the mistwolf!” Tweek screamed.

  “Ahhh!” Ozzie ducked as bolts of red magic shot from Tweek’s gem.

  “I can’t get through to him!” Emily struggled with the Fairimental’s flailing twigs.

  “He’s tweeking out!” Raising her unicorn jewel, Kara encased the possessed E.F. in a sphere of white and pink magic.

  “Maybe you can help him,” Emily said to Adriane. “You’re both tuned to earth magic.”

  Tweek thrashed wildly inside the bubble. “I’ll destroy you all!”

  The warrior shrugged. “Well, he couldn’t get much worse.”

  Dreamer, Moonshadow, and Dawnrunner took position by the warrior’s side, Drake and the rest of the mistwolves behind her.

  Steeling herself, Adriane drew on the strength of her friends and focused on Tweek’s glowing red HORARFF.

  She concentrated on the magic she shared with Emily. Calm, soothing blues sparkled at the edge of her golden jewel. The healing magic was part of her now, tempering her warrior fire, making her stronger.

  Gold and blue swirled into glowing red.

  Beneath the Spider Witch’s spell, she sensed the deep green of trees, the velvety brown of bark, the sparkling blue of spring flowers—all the vitality and strength of the forest.

  She thought of Orenda, and her wolf stone glowed brighter, gold edged with silver and green. Tweek reached to her, climbing out of the darkness and latching onto Adriane’s pure magic.

  The E.F. stood before them, quartz eyes whirling with golden magic, HORARFF shining bright turquoise.

  “Speak to me, Twighead,” Ozzie pleaded.

  The little Fairimental looked over his twiggy arms and legs, then stared at the fuzzy ferret. “Inconceivable!”

  “You did it!” Emily cried as Kara and Zach high-fived the warrior.

  Tweek shook his twigs and leaves back to a semblance of his earthly body.

  “Tweek, what happened to you?” Emily asked, smoothing a section of moss on his head.

  Quartz eyes twinkled, focusing on the mages. “The very magic that holds me together was twisted. Disgusting!”

  “Just like the forest spirit,” Adriane realized.

  “The spirit world is completely flooie! There’s wild magic all over the place.”

  “I noticed.” Adriane leaned against Drake’s soft neck as she caught her breath. The dragon’s large head hung over her shoulder protectively. “Maybe the spirit pack got swept away on the wild magic, like I did.”

  “Possible,” Moonshadow agreed.

  “Tweek, what is the Spider Witch doing?” Emily asked.

  “She had me release all those… things to try and take Dreamer.”

  “What were they?” Zach asked.

  “Dark creatures of shadow that live in the astral planes.” Tweek twirled about. “What concerns me is the fact she could twist Fairimental magic at all!”

  “Hold up,” Kara said. “What about the forest spirit?”

  Tweek looked at his HORARFF. “I’m afraid it’s going to transform into something horrible.”

  “What do we do now?” Zach asked.

  Tweek straightened his twigs and marched forward. “We study and decipher mysterious, ancient symbols.”

  Ozzie rolled his eyes, laughing. “You kill me, Twighead.”

  “No, look.”

  Everyone turned around and gasped. The Rocking Stone pulsed with bright white magic, ablaze with glowing symbols.

  “WOW, LOOK AT this.” Zach walked around the base of the towering Rocking Stone.

  Symbols pulsed in sequence around the stone like glowing hieroglyphics.

  “By the great tree!” Tweek studied scrolling bytes of data projected from his HORARFF, trying to find a match.

  “The Rocking Stone is an ancient Indian totem. I looked it up online,” Emily said. “Legends call it a spirit door.”

  “I flew through it from the astral planes,” Adriane said.

  “Precisely.” Tweek continued scrolling through data. “This stone is a place where the real world and the astral planes intersect. I believe the witch used it to infiltrate the glade with her dark magic.”

  “How do we close it?” Adriane asked.

  “You can’t,” Tweek said. “But you must have activated the markings when you broke through.”

  “Good job,” Zach told the warrior, smiling.

  “Yeah, if I knew what I did, it’d be great.”

  “It seems to be some kind of message.” Tweek scanned his light over the markings. “Something to do with elemental magic.”

  “Hey, look.” Kara pointed to a symbol of curling flames glowing orange, red, and yellow on the stone’s surface. “There’s me, fire.”

  “Yes,” Tweek observed, “and this is water, air, earth, and… what the—”

  Zach’s ruby dragon stone gleamed as he ran it over a strange circular symbol with a lopsided triangle. “What is that?”

  “Pizza?” Ozzie guessed, squinting at the stone.

  Puzzled, the E.F. projected a huge magnifying glass and studied the strange symbol. “Hmmm, I don’t know about this one.”

  “Tweek,” Emily said. “Adriane helped fix your magic.”

  “Thank you,” the E.F. mumbled.

  Kara looked at the darkening glade. “If Adriane healed you, could we use the same magic to heal Orenda?”

  “Theoretically. But I’m just a mass of earthly matter. The forest sylph is an ancient fairy creature, connected to every tree and plant in this forest.”

  “We have to try,” Adriane said.

  “No, no, no!” Tweek protested. “My basic elements are tied to earth magic,
like the forest spirit, so I’m susceptible. But so are Adriane and the mistwolves. Orenda is trapped in a powerful weaving. You’d have to be fully trained in elemental magic to protect yourselves against that spell, let alone reverse it.”

  “Mistwolves are not afraid,” Moonshadow growled.

  Dawnrunner stood by her mate, eyes glinting fire.“Better we try than watch our pups grow without magic.”

  Adriane could feel the witch’s spell prickling over her skin, twisting the magic of Ravenswood. The same thing was happening to the mistwolves. When their magic disappeared, they would be plain wolves, pure savage animals. What would happen to her?

  Dreamer whined low, feeling the warrior’s fear.

  “Using elemental magic before you’re ready is extremely dangerous. Look what happened to the Spider Witch,” Tweek said.

  Kara shuddered. “You mean she’s, like, a spider?”

  Tweek nodded. “The transformation gave her remarkable powers to weave elemental magic.”

  The wind howled through the glade, an eerie sound, almost as if the trees were crying.

  Kara turned to the group of mages and animals. “There is magic powerful enough to save Ravenswood and the mistwolves.”

  “The power crystal.” Adriane clenched her hand into a fist.

  “It worked in the Fairy Realms,” Kara concluded.

  “Forget it,” Tweek barked at Adriane. “You were nearly lost in the astral planes. And you!” His eyes spun colors as he turned to Kara. “What makes you think you can handle that kind of power? You already destroyed one.”

  “It was an accident.” Kara flushed.

  “We don’t have a choice!” Adriane cried as thunder suddenly rocked the skies. Storm clouds gathered overhead, a dense mass silhouetting the trees in a seething darkness.

  “There’s isn’t much time left.” Kara indicated the drooping, graying branches. “If those monsters are any indication of what to expect, we have to try!”

  “The Spider Witch is only getting more powerful.” Adriane’s voice rose, her black eyes sparking as she stood beside Dreamer. “I say we strike now, when she’s not expecting it. It’s the only advantage we’ve got.”

  “I agree with the mages,” Moonshadow said.

  “We will find the power crystal,” Dawnrunner vowed.

  Tweek saw the determination on the faces around him. “I must say, I have never met mages like you before.” His body rattled as a few mounds of moss slipped to the grass. “Of course, I never met anyone before you.”

  Moonshadow snarled at the twiggy figure.

  “Oh, all right.” Tweek hoisted his twigs into place. “First, you need to know a few rules about Level Two mageing.”

  “Right,” Kara agreed.

  “Level Two mages must have—” he held up twiggy fingers and counted off, “a tuned jewel.”

  “Check,” Adriane, Kara, Emily, Ozzie, and Zach echoed.

  “At least one bonded magical animal.”

  “Check,” Adriane, Kara, and Zach echoed.

  “And an elemental paladin.”

  “Here,” Kara responded, looking at the others.

  “It’s too risky!” Twigs went flying as Tweek cartwheeled about. “You’re all over the map!”

  “We need to figure out what elements we are,” Zach said, studying the markings.

  “Who are you, anyway?” Tweek’s quartz eyes rolled in his twigs.

  “That’s Zach, another mage, and my baby boy, Drake,” Adriane said.

  “BaaWoW! The Drake is famous among Fairimentals!” Tweek exclaimed, then sighed. “Okay, well, we know Kara is fire.”

  Adriane swung her wolf stone. Gold and red sparks trailed over the stone’s surface. A tree wrapped in ivy crackled with green and deep gold against the granite.

  “Earth, naturally,” Tweek said.

  Emily stepped up, passing her rainbow stone over the glowing symbols. A series of cresting wave markings flashed aquamarine and diamond white.

  “Emily is water,” Tweek said.

  “Lemme see that thing!” Ozzie stomped over, nose to rock, scanning the jewel on his collar. Several bright puffy clouds flashed on the stone, edged in gleaming silver.

  “Ozzie’s definitely full of hot air,” Kara remarked.

  “Thank you.” Ozzie proudly polished his jewel with his furry arm.

  “We need room,” Tweek said as he wobbled to the lake in the center of the glade.

  The mages followed the E.F. expectantly.

  “Everyone stand with your bonded animals,” he instructed.

  Adriane stood with the mistwolves, Kara with Lyra, and Zach with Drake. Ozzie took a step toward Emily.

  “Hey! You’re an elf, and a mage, too—sort of,” Tweek reminded him. “And neither of you have bonded with an animal.”

  “Maybe Ozzie bonded with himself,” Kara suggested.

  “That’s ridiculous.” Ozzie looked himself over, smoothing his cowlick.

  “I’ve bonded with unicorns,” Emily reminded them.

  “Healers can bond with many animals, but not everyone is meant for Level Two.” The E.F.’s quartz eyes whirled. “Kara happens to have the perfect combination of magic. She is a blazing star tuned to a unicorn jewel, bonded to Lyra and a Firemental stallion.”

  “Perfect,” Kara mouthed as she coyly twirled her sparkling jewel.

  “Wait,” Adriane said. “So if the Spider Witch is an elemental master, then she has a paladin, too?”

  “I bet it’s that big creepy spider I saw in her lair.” Kara shuddered.

  “Yes…” Tweek said, eyes popping. “If there were a way to get rid of her paladin, we could weaken her powers—”

  “And her hold on Ravenswood!” Ozzie finished.

  “We don’t have time to break into her lair!” Adriane protested. “We have to heal Orenda now!”

  “But there’s only one of us who is a Level Two mage,” Emily said.

  “I can boost the rest of you,” Kara suggested. “That’s what a blazing star does. Uses magic to help everyone else.”

  Adriane gave Kara a nod and stepped to a line of trees near the lake’s edge. “Orenda is somewhere around here.”

  “Let’s kick it.” Kara held up her unicorn jewel, swirling diamond magic around her arms.

  “O’ me twig,” Tweek sputtered.

  The blazing star concentrated, morphing her magic into red, pink, and orange flames. With a wave of her hands, she pulled the fire together, letting it mix with the amber glow of the wolf stone.

  Amplified by Kara’s magic, Adriane whipped golden wolf fire around four of the nearest trees. She immediately felt a jolt. The trees were trying to fight the strangling power of the weaving.

  “I can feel the webs!” Adriane tried to pull the dark magic away, but couldn’t.

  Ozzie focused on his stone. “Air—what does that mean, Tweekster?”

  “Could be levitation, wind…”

  Ozzie looked at Kara. His gem glowed bright amber. Then a burst of wind shot from his stone, throwing the ferret backward. He tumbled head over heels into the lake.

  “Very good.” Tweek commented.

  Emily focused on the lake, trying to pull the flailing ferret back to shore. Her rainbow stone shone blue, green, and purple as she concentrated. The lake surface rippled slightly.

  “Kara, give me a boost,” she instructed.

  Kara draped the healer in pink and white diamond twinkles. A wave surged across the lake, delivering the soggy ferret onto the bank with a splatter.

  Adriane’s magic sparked. Waves of magic leaped into the air and vanished, leaving the trees untouched.

  “This is so not working.” The warrior lowered her arm, exhausted and disappointed.

  Moonshadow gathered the pack around the warrior. “Try again.”

  Focusing, the warrior reached into the earth, feeling the magic running through the roots. The weaving sapped at her bright fire, swallowing its power. But deep underneath she felt something, a spark
of life. Opening herself to the mistwolves, she snarled and grabbed the earth magic, trying to wrest it free.

  Tweek went flying across the glade and smashed into the Rocking Stone in a burst of dirt. “Aggooy.”

  Adriane felt her magic drain away with the effort.

  The E.F. spun to his feet and tumbled back to the glade. “Yes, well, although she doesn’t have a paladin, the pull of the mistwolves is very strong.”

  All the animals of Ravenswood had now gathered in the glade to help.

  “Teamwork, people!” Kara held her shining unicorn jewel, forming a ring of pale orange fire to encircle the trees.

  The others held up their gems, concentrating. Blue, green, red, gold, and amber sparkled along Kara’s swirling Firemental magic.

  “Careful,” the blazing star cautioned. “Okay, let’s take it out.”

  The circle of magic spread slowly outward, covering the willows along the lakeshore.

  “Go.” The blazing star nodded to the warrior.

  With the mistwolves supporting her, Adriane reached out, trying to find what she had seen in her nightmare.

  Kara spread her arms wide, sending a blast of unicorn magic into the ring.

  “Kara, watch out!” Ozzie yelled.

  The circle of fire washed across the glade in a blaze of power.

  Adriane kicked the ground as the mistwolves growled, snapping at the air in frustration.

  “That was… something,” Tweek said.

  “Great, now what?” Kara asked.

  The mages exchanged anxious glances, their jewels lowered and lifeless.

  “If only I knew how to use the magic better,” Zach muttered.

  “If only we could contact the Fairimentals, or the unicorns,” Emily said worriedly.

  Kara threw her hands in the air. “We don’t have enough time to practice!”

  A feeling of despondency and hopelessness hung heavy in the air.

  “We suck!” a quiffle squeaked.

  “You made it worse,” Adriane accused Kara.

  “I did not!” Kara faced the warrior.

  “Did.”

  “Not!” Kara said to Adriane. “You’re doing it wrong.”

  “I am not!”

  “I’m the one here with Level Two magic!” Kara yelled.

  “Oh, if you’re so perfect—” Adriane got right in Kara’s face. “Why don’t you just save the preserve yourself?”